Earlier this month, Tyrone Borough Interim Manager Sharon Dannaway informed council PennDOT had awarded a bid for a street paving project.
The decision by PennDOT to do the work this year means an infrastructure project for Washington Avenue that the borough has considered will have to put on ice for awhile.
The PennDOT paving project has been planned for some time and the borough had asked PennDOT to wait on paving Washington Avenue so it could complete a project designed to replace sewer lines, waterlines, drains and manholes along a portion of the street.
The infrastructure project was estimated to cost about $1.5 million. Originally, the project was to include the section on Washington Avenue from 4th Street to 9th Street. Last year, council agreed to expand the project to start at 3rd Street. Mayor Patricia Stoner had asked council to approve the additional section after a request by the borough’s sewer superintendent who wanted to install some manholes.
During the first half of last year, Mayor Stoner had wanted to seek specific grant money through Elm Street funding to move the Washington Avenue project forward, but the borough was unable to submit needed information by a June 30, 2004 deadline. Request for proposals (for engineering and funding) were required to be submitted with the grant application and the necessary work had not been done in time for the deadline.
A July 2004 Daily Herald article said the borough eventually hired the Blair County Industrial Development Authority to have it prepare grant writing and engineering documents needed for the project.
At the time, Mayor Stoner explained she had learned there was new Elm Street grant money in the state’s 2004-05 budget that the borough could tap into for the project.
She indicated the borough would also need to go after other funding including competitive grant money to complete the project. The borough had already earmarked money from its regular CDBG funding allotment for the project.
However, Dannaway told The Daily Herald this morning that the funding had not been obtained and PennDOT said it could not put the paving project off any longer. Dannaway said the infrastructure project is now a “short-term goal (to be done) within five years.”
Dannaway said she attended a pre-construction conference last week where PennDOT went over paper work with the contractor and discussed any concerns the contractor and the borough might have about the paving.
She said the borough asked PennDOT not use a vibrating roller starting from 3rd Street through Washington Avenue to avoid disturbing the underlying infrastructure.
Dannaway said the paving will include Washington Avenue then will continue below the underpass and onto Pennsylvania Avenue through the paper mill. She said another portion of the paving will include Columbia Avenue onto Adams Avenue going out of town.
Dannaway suggested PennDOT was moving forward on the long-planned street paving in Tyrone because of other priorities it has scheduled in the future in the area.
She said motorists will have to deal with rough roads and traffic control during the paving project which is scheduled to begin in early August.
